Not Only Luck.
An essay by John Melonakos

Finding Time to Think

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I took the panorama photo above yesterday at Lake Louise outside of Calgary, Canada. This lake is formed as glacial waters melt. It is an interesting blue color due to the silt that comes off the mountain.

Places like this are inspirational. In fact, a great-grandfather used to come to this same lake all the way from Southern California to paint and to think.

Being at Lake Louise made me think about how I find time to think in regular life. Yesterday I wrote about working “on” rather than “in” a startup. Working “on” a startup requires thought. It requires percolated thought, meaning you can not force inspiration for big decisions. Rather, it requires a great deal of mulling and steady mental revisiting over time.

The last several years I’ve had to make several thoughtful decisions. I tend to regularly stew on things for some time prior to pulling the trigger. Stewing is fairly difficult for me since the office is always busy and my home is always busy. Here are the times when I’m able to escape and think on a regular basis:

  • During my commute (30 min each way)
  • During my morning shower
  • While at church on Sunday’s

Those are regular recurring opportunities for thought. The commute is by far the biggest allotment of thinkable time. If I had a shorter commute, I guess I would have to find other times to think.

Some may be able to think before falling asleep. I fall asleep too fast for that to work regularly.

When do you find time to think?

From the conversation

Comments preserved from the original post.

Stu

While running.

Vincent

Why schedule thinking in our free time? The problem is of course with the people who don’t think you’re working when you leave the office – social pressure is stronger than you and I can admit.

Why not label it a “(solo) meeting” and schedule it during work-time? It is work, as simple as that.

You know the saying “Work 100%, Socialize 100%, Rest 100%?” – I try to live according to that to make my entrepreneurial live less complicated. Under the shower or in the church you now rest/socialize 30% and work 70%.

John Melonakos

In reply to an earlier comment

Thanks for commenting! It’s not so much that I explicitly schedule time to think. Rather, I think it’s important to have regularly occurring opportunities for percolated thoughts to occur.

Vincent

In reply to an earlier comment

So why not think on regular times? Every day for half an hour after lunch – what’s wrong with that? Open question…

John Melonakos

In reply to an earlier comment

I think scheduling regular times are a great idea if there aren’t other regular times already baked in (like my daily commute).

Johnson Cook

In reply to an earlier comment

Agree with running that’s big for me. Also many if my biggest thinking times comes when I’m NOT thinking. This is why I too love my commute time. It’s listening to music and just disengaging — that’s when the biggest ideas happen.
Great post